Indonesia's E-Commerce Leader Raises $1.1 B from Alibaba and Softbank

Leading technology company PT Tokopedia announced on Wednesday that it had secured US$1.1 billion in its latest financing round, led by the SoftBank Vision Fund and Alibaba Group with participation by Softbank Ventures Korea and other existing investors.

Tokopedia said in a press statement that it planned to use the funds to build technology and infrastructure that empowers millions of local businesses to grow to drive financial inclusion in Indonesia.

Tokopedia CEO and Co-Founder, William Tanuwijaya. Image: Tribunnews

Tokopedia CEO and cofounder William Tanuwijaya said in its first nine years, Tokopedia focused on building Indonesia’s largest marketplace for physical and digital goods.

“Leading into our 10th year, Tokopedia is evolving our ecosystem to infrastructure-as-a-service where our logistics, fulfillment, payments and financial services technologies will empower commerce, both online and offline,” William said in the statement, as quoted by The Jakarta Post.

“This will broaden Tokopedia’s scale and reach while improving operational efficiencies for the millions of businesses and partners in our ecosystem.”

Tokopedia office. Image: Jofie Yordan/kumparan

Tokopedia claims it serves nearly all districts across Indonesia and provides same-day delivery to 25 percent of its customers.

Lydia Jett, senior investor at SoftBank Investment Advisers and Tokopedia Board member, said Tokopedia had provided millions of consumers with access to more than 100 million products and would serve more as internet adoption continued to grow rapidly in the country. Like Alibaba, Tokopedia has expanded beyond ecommerce to offer other services such as online payments.

Online marketplace Tokopedia last year overtook Lazada Indonesia as the country's most popular internet shop. Image: Erwida Maulia/Nikkei Asian Review

“We see our mission — to make it easy to do business anywhere — reflected in Tokopedia’s journey,” said Kenny Ho, head of investment in south-east Asia and India at Alibaba to Financial Times.

Founded in 2009, Tokopedia is currently Indonesia’s largest online marketplace, drawing comparisons to Alibaba’s Taobao.

The latest round includes investments from Softbank’s Vision Fund as well as Softbank Ventures Korea and Sequoia Capital.

The company, which delivers to around 93 percent of Indonesian districts, says it has quadrupled its sales in the past year.